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You don't happen to have hired the devil for gardener at any time, do you? Just fancy! any cook might come out here for horseradish, and gather this plant, and lay you all dead at your own table. It is the Aconitum of medicine, the Monk's-hood or Wolf's-bane' of our ancestors. Call the gardener, please, and have every bit of it pulled up by the roots.
The presence of this substance was suggested in the Lamson trial. The Indian aconite, Aconitum ferox, the Bish poison, is much more active than the European variety. It contains a large proportion of pseudaconitine, and is frequently employed in India, not only for the destruction of wild beasts, but for criminal purposes.
Although the mischief which is recited above occurred from the root having been purchased at market, I do not know of any vegetable in common use likely to be confounded with this. It might by chance be mistaken for the smaller tubers of Jerusalem artichoke. In foliage it comes near to the other species of Aconitum, and to the perennial Larkspurs.
The poison used is invariably a decoction expressed from the tubers of a species of aconitum, which grows on those ranges at an altitude of 8,000 to 10,000 feet ... The reduction in thickness of the arrow where the poison is placed causes the point to break off in the body of anyone whom it strikes, and as each carries enough poison to kill a cart horse a wound is invariably fatal.
I get you.... In this country the main thing is that there is some light. A single ray, however feeble, and even coming from one fixed angle only, means aspiration, life...." He lighted a cigar. "As you know," he remarked, "there is a flower called Aconitum. It is also known by the ominous names of Monks-Hood and Helmet-Flower. Direct sunlight kills it. It flourishes only in shadow.
These should be attacked by strong decoctions of oak-bark, gall-nuts, and Peruvian bark; after which soft mucilaginous matters should be used, as milk, fat broth, or emulsions. ACONITUM Napelhus. BLUE MONKSHOOD. This is a very poisonous plant; and many instances have been adduced of its dangerous effects.
Whether it ever caused the death of a wolf is doubtful, for wolves have their fair share of sense, and probably, knowing something of botany, they tell their cubs: "Don't touch the Aconitum Lycotinum, children; it is better to eat meat."
As it is our business, in demonstrating plants, to guard the student against such confusion, it will be proper that specimens of such as come under this head be preserved, as a work for reference and contrast wherever doubts may arise. ACONITUM Napellus. COMMON BLUE MONKSHOOD. The Leaves.
However, as this is a plant much grown in pleasure-grounds on account of its beautiful blue flowers, great care should be taken not to use any roots taken from such places that cannot be well ascertained. ACONITUM Lycoctonum. YELLOW WOLFSBANE. Every part of this plant is accounted poisonous.
Every kind of doctor was asked to come in, and every treatment had recourse to; and, though of such medicines as cinnamon, aconitum seeds, turtle shell, ophiopogon, Yue-chue herb, and the like, he took several tens of catties, he nevertheless experienced no change for the better; so that by the time the twelfth moon drew once again to an end, and spring returned, this illness had become still more serious.
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